This invention relates to electrical power transmission, and more particularly, to apparatus and a method for sensing power line conditions.
In recent years, it has become common practice to sense power line conditions with a current transformer and/or a voltage transformer for the purposes of energy management, ground fault detection, and system measurement and control. A frequent use of such information about power line conditions is to optimize the power factor by means of power capacitor switching.
Typically, a current transformer and/or a voltage transformer are packaged as self-contained units which are mounted on the power pole near a power line supporting insulator. The connection to the power system is made by dead ending the power line on one side of the insulator and connecting the transformer package in series with the line. Specifically, the power line is cut, dead end clamps are installed, and the leads of the transformer package are connected to the dead end clamps. It is difficult, if not impossible, to carry out this installation procedure while the power line is "hot", i.e., carrying electrical power.